Weibuillin

Weibuillin is a fictional natural product commonly used in teaching materials and speculative texts to illustrate ideas in natural product chemistry and biosynthesis. It does not correspond to any compound confirmed in real-world databases.

In the fictional account, weibuillin is a small-molecule alkaloid with a proposed core consisting of a bicyclic indole fused to a tetrahydropyran ring. The estimated molecular formula is C20H23NO4, with a molecular weight of about 337 g/mol and a logP around 2.8, suggesting moderate lipophilicity. The structure is often shown with a methyl ester side chain and a secondary amide group.

Biosynthesis: The hypothetical biosynthetic pathway combines a nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) module with a polyketide synthase (PKS)–like assembly, encoded by a fictional gene cluster named wbA–wbF. The pathway is discussed in teaching scenarios to illustrate domain organization, tailoring steps, and gene cluster regulation.

Biological activity and applications: In speculative literature, weibuillin is described as having modest antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria and limited cytotoxicity in cell-free assays. It is used in exercises on structure-activity relationships, total synthesis planning, and genome mining for natural product discovery.

Status: No experimental isolation, structural confirmation, or biological data exist in the real world. Weibuillin serves as a conceptual tool rather than a validated chemical entity.